Sports: Heroes of the Week

The Young Duo’s Rise
At the Geneva World championships, the youngest figure skating pair from the Soviet national team, a 14-year-old high school student Ekaterina Gordeeva and a college freshman Sergei Grinkov, new world champions were especially popular. We met with them in the sports palace lobby.

Katia and Sergei, tell us, how did you become figure skaters?Gordeeva: "Our parents brought Serezha and me to the CSKA figure skating school. I was a singles skater since I was 5 years old. When I was 10, Serezha and I tried pairs skating for the first time..."

What did your coach Stanislav Zhuk tell you before the start of the World championships?Grinkov: "Stanislav Alekseevich Zhuk told us a few times that we should not think about medals. Our goal was to run smoothly through the difficult elements of the program. And we had many difficult elements. We were very proud when we managed to perform all of the element combinations."

What do you like to do besides figure skating?Gordeeva: "I like reading Pushkin's poems. I like Russian poetry very much. And in music I prefer Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Lizst, Beethoven, Mozart. Also I love 1930-s jazz..."Grinkov: "I like sports, especially tennis and football (soccer). I am a fan of Moscow "Spartak" and Fedor Cherenkov. My hobby is collecting sports pins. Also I collect everything that is related to our performances at various competitions: posters, pins, programs. In literature I prefer satirical stories of O' Henry, Hašek."

Who is helping you to create your programs?Gordeeva: "Stanislav Leonovich, our coach is a big help. We work a lot on choreography with Marina Zueva who was a great dancer herself and understands music very well. She taught us how to feel the beauty of music. And we hope to show our perception of music in our new programs."